Category Archives: NBA

For those who refuse to ever download or click on anything – here’s 13 guys projecting a final WAR above 15. The above spreadsheet has ALL the gory details – broken down into the minutiae, if you crave more:

WARpace

Rk

WAR/48

Rk

HnI

Rk

Player

Pos

Age

Tm

G

M/g

P/g

R/g

A/g

S/g

B/g

T/g

TS%

38.11

1

54.47

1

185

1

Russell Westbrook

PG

28

OKC

6

34.2

33.2

9.0

9.7

1.7

0.5

5.3

0.544

27.46

2

36.27

3

144

11

LeBron James

SF

32

CLE

6

36.3

22.8

8.8

10.7

0.7

0.3

3.7

0.552

24.97

3

32.52

6

179

2

James Harden

PG

27

HOU

6

36.8

31.5

7.3

12.3

1.5

0.0

4.8

0.647

24.86

4

33.94

5

156

6

Kevin Durant

SF

28

GSW

6

35.2

30.0

8.0

3.3

2.3

1.3

2.0

0.684

24.20

5

31.25

8

153

7

DeMar DeRozan

SG

27

TOR

6

37.2

33.7

4.8

2.7

1.0

0.0

2.7

0.579

23.79

6

36.80

2

172

3

Chris Paul

PG

31

LAC

6

31.0

18.5

6.0

8.7

3.5

0.3

2.2

0.561

23.59

7

32.12

7

152

8

Damian Lillard

PG

26

POR

7

36.3

32.0

5.7

4.9

0.9

0.1

2.9

0.638

23.08

8

35.23

4

164

4

Kawhi Leonard

SF

25

SAS

7

31.4

26.4

5.4

3.4

2.4

0.4

1.7

0.615

18.36

9

26.38

10

134

19

Kemba Walker

PG

26

CHO

5

33.4

24.4

3.0

4.6

1.4

0.0

2.8

0.595

17.97

10

26.86

9

146

10

Giannis Antetokounmpo

SG

22

MIL

7

32.6

21.1

8.4

6.0

1.9

1.9

3.0

0.565

17.07

11

24.22

11

141

14

George Hill

PG

30

UTA

7

33.9

20.4

2.9

5.0

1.0

0.3

1.1

0.650

16.51

12

24.13

12

140

16

Blake Griffin

PF

27

LAC

6

32.8

20.3

9.7

3.0

1.3

0.5

2.0

0.524

16.05

13

23.70

13

122

29

Kevin Love

PF

28

CLE

6

32.5

21.7

8.5

1.0

1.0

1.2

1.8

0.560

The top 8 – Russ, LeBron, Harden, KD, DeMar, CP3, Damian, & Kawhi – really stand out and up to this point have played like true superstars. Remember, WAR is tied to team wins – so a team that hasn’t won will have a roster with zero WAR. So a guy like Anthony Davis (274th in WAR while 5th in HnI) will jump up the rankings the moment his team garners a win or two.

Here are the top producers at specific statistical skill sets, in terms of Points Added per 100 possessions to an average NBA lineup:

Player

Statistical Skill Set

PA

Channing Frye

3pt Production

16.3

DeMar DeRozan

2pt Production

15.6

Hassan Whiteside

2pt Production

12.9

Salah Mejri

2pt Production

12.8

Enes Kanter

2pt Production

10.6

Kawhi Leonard

Free Throw Production

10.1

Chris Paul

Assist-Turnover Production

9.7

Yes, Channing Frye hitting 10 of 19 three pointers in 62 minutes lands him at the top of this list. Not expecting he’ll stay. Steph Curry was a +12.2 last season in terms of his three point production, which was easily the top Points Added of any statistical skill set for the NBA that year. At the moment this season, he is “merely” a +4.1 (39th in the NBA).

For those who refuse to ever download or click on anything – here’s 14 guys projecting a final WAR above 15. The above spreadsheet has ALL the gory details – broken down into the minutiae, if you crave more:

WARpace

Rank

WAR/48

Rank

HnI

Rank

Player

Age

G

M/g

P/g

R/g

A/g

S/g

B/g

T/g

TS%

49.78

1

66.32

1

201

1

Russell Westbrook

28

4

37.0

37.8

10.8

10.0

1.5

0.3

6.0

0.543

29.06

2

37.45

4

164

6

DeMar DeRozan

27

4

37.3

36.3

5.3

2.3

1.5

0.0

2.8

0.602

28.11

3

37.48

3

153

7

Kevin Durant

28

4

36.0

28.5

9.0

4.0

3.0

1.5

2.0

0.663

27.35

4

35.71

5

179

2

James Harden

27

5

36.8

31.8

7.0

12.4

1.2

0.0

4.6

0.644

25.49

5

38.02

2

172

3

Kawhi Leonard

25

5

32.2

28.4

4.2

3.8

3.0

0.2

1.8

0.643

23.17

6

30.54

7

140

14

LeBron James

32

4

36.5

20.5

9.5

9.5

0.3

0.5

3.8

0.562

21.56

7

33.09

6

166

4

Chris Paul

31

4

31.3

18.8

6.0

7.8

3.3

0.0

2.8

0.586

20.61

8

27.67

8

140

13

Giannis Antetokounmpo

22

4

35.8

23.3

9.5

5.8

1.0

2.0

2.0

0.564

19.79

9

27.20

9

133

20

Kyrie Irving

24

4

35.0

26.8

3.5

4.0

0.5

0.5

2.8

0.601

18.45

10

25.54

10

131

26

Isaiah Thomas

27

4

34.8

24.3

3.0

7.5

1.8

0.3

3.3

0.606

17.51

11

24.17

12

145

8

George Hill

30

5

34.8

21.4

3.0

4.6

1.0

0.4

1.4

0.656

17.04

12

23.15

15

143

10

Damian Lillard

26

5

36.8

32.6

6.0

4.6

1.0

0.2

3.2

0.608

17.02

13

24.20

11

133

21

Kemba Walker

26

4

33.8

23.0

2.3

5.5

1.8

0.0

2.5

0.601

16.35

14

23.76

13

142

11

Blake Griffin

27

4

33.0

20.0

10.8

3.3

1.5

0.8

2.5

0.500

Russell Westbrook is the very early, very strong leader for POY. He, like, totally doesn’t suck.

For those of you that missed me and have been asking about me – yes, it appears I am returning back to the grid with NBA and NCAA basketball player ratings & rankings, as well as more advanced stuff (updated draft model & retrodiction, player projections across leagues, etc.). But, for now, we’ll ease in with the more familiar – here’s the spreadsheet with all the player data for your perusal:

For those who refuse to ever download or click on anything – here’s 16 guys projecting a final WAR above 15. The above spreadsheet has ALL the gory details – broken down into the minutiae, if you crave more:

WARpace

Rank

WAR/48

Rank

Player

51.67

1

66.95

1

Russell Westbrook

31.64

2

39.97

3

Kevin Durant

29.43

3

38.76

4

Damian Lillard

27.15

4

41.75

2

Kawhi Leonard

25.70

5

33.59

8

LeBron James

25.61

6

32.93

9

James Harden

25.46

7

36.87

5

Blake Griffin

23.03

8

35.51

6

Chris Paul

22.82

9

34.91

7

DeMarcus Cousins

18.58

10

28.25

11

Jimmy Butler

18.44

11

25.25

15

Kyrie Irving

16.56

12

21.78

22

DeMar DeRozan

16.22

13

22.90

17

Kemba Walker

15.96

14

20.86

26

Avery Bradley

15.92

15

26.41

13

Paul Millsap

15.73

16

22.85

18

Rudy Gay

The official NBA players of the week were Westbrook and Lebron, and my WAR completely agreed.

Anyway – yes, I will start becoming active on Twitter again. Yes, I will try to answer any or all questions that spring up in the comments below, or Twitter, or my email. I will update every article and ranking with a tweet or two (or three) – so feel free to follow me and add me to your basketball or analytics lists if you find stuff like this fun or enlightening.